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The Spark Behind Iran’s Unrest: Millions of Defrauded Investors

The collapse of investment firms offering outlandish returns fueled the protests that grew into the biggest challenge to the regime since 2009

People in Iran have demonstrated against the government in the biggest wave of protests to hit the country in almost a decade. Here's what could be next for Iran and what the unrest means for more than 80 million Iranians. Photo: Getty Images. (Originally published Jan. 4, 2018)

The call to protest came through a group channel on the smartphone app Telegram. Younes, a 42-year-old accountant at a saffron-importing company, like most of the group’s thousand or so members, had lost his savings when a financial firm promising huge returns went bankrupt amid bad investments and corruption.

Younes, who lives in Iran’s northeastern city of Mashhad, had used all his funds and borrowed from his employer to invest about $20,000. The firm was offering returns of up to 27%, up to 15 percentage points higher than...